By: Kevin Dillon/DFP Staff
Senior goaltender Kieran Millan had not had a problem handling the University of New Hampshire throughout his career before Friday night’s Hockey East quarterfinal matchup at Agganis Arena. In his four years with the Boston University men’s hockey team, Millan has had a 7-2 record with a .952 save percentage and a 1.56 goals against average when facing the Wildcats.
Despite BU’s 3-2 double-overtime loss in Friday night’s game, Millan continued to shine against UNH, as he stopped a career-high 47 shots, including 18 in the third period. While UNH controlled the pace of the game and peppered the BU goal with shots, Millan held strong and gave BU a chance to win.
“He was unbelievable. I mean obviously he almost stole the game again,” said UNH coach Dick Umile, who saw Millan steal a NCAA Regional Final game from his squad back in 2009 to keep the Wildcats out of the Frozen Four. “He’s won an awful lot of hockey games because he is a great goaltender.”
While he had a great showing in the game, the night didn’t start that well for Millan, who allowed two goals in the first period. The second goal came from a long, soft shot from UNH forward Kevin Goumas that slipped past him to give the Wildcats the lead.
However, Millan bounced back from the shaky play, as he made 37 saves over the following three periods to keep BU’s stagnant offense alive in the playoff game.
Senior captain Chris Connolly noted that with the offense struggling get chances at against opposing goaltender Casey DeSmith, Millan was the reason BU had a shot at winning the game.
“We feel bad for him,” Connolly said. “He did everything to give us a chance to win there and all we needed to do was try to pop one in and they shot 50 shots.”
Not only did the offense struggle scoring to keep the puck in UNH’s zone during the game, but BU’s defense struggled to clear the puck throughout the entire game. On the Wildcat’s overtime goal, UNH freshman Grayson Downing simply stole the puck from a BU defenseman directly in front of the net and whipped it on goal from point-blank range. Millan got a piece of the puck, but was unable to make the game-saving stop.
“We had many, many opportunities to make the right pass and we turned it over,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “We looked like we were back on our heels an awful lot and very tentative and they took it in.”
This performance was his best of what has been an impressive senior campaign for Millan, in which he has started all but four games. Before Friday night’s effort, his highest save total on the season was also in an overtime loss: BU’s 3-2 loss to Boston College in the Beanpot Championship game.
Those two games proved something that was already apparent since his freshman year at BU – that Millan is a big-game goaltender. As a freshman in 2009, Millan had a 2.44 goals against average during the Terriers’ nine-game national championship run. That was also the year he was named the Hockey Commissioners’ Association National Rookie of the Year for his standout play.
“He has been the backbone of our team for the last four years ever since I have been here. He is a big reason we were able to win a championship in 2009 and he was part of the reason that the previous two seasons weren’t as bad as they could have been,” Connolly said. “He is a world-class goalie as far as college is concerned and I think he is one of the best in the country.”
Winning the national championship is not the only mark Millan has left on BU hockey throughout his career. Earlier this season, Millan set the record for career wins (79) and saves (3,544), while he set the record for saves in a season (1,085) his junior year.
“He’s got almost every record we have here as a goaltender. He’s having a terrific senior season. He’s had a terrific career,” Parker said. “He deserved a much better fate tonight, that’s for sure.”
Millan is a terrible goalie in OT games.
Politely [expletive] off. OT games are just as much the duty of all the other players to score first, rather than the goalie’s duty to stop every shot. Kieran contributed 70 minutes of scoreless play to the night. If you think his letdown in double overtime was the reason we lost this game, get your head checked.
You mad bro?
How did Millan contribute 70 minutes of scoreless hockey when we lost 2-1?
Um, UNH scored at 18:06 of the first and then not again til 2:00 of the SECOND OT…The means they didn’t score for the 2nd period, 3rd period, first OT and 2 mins into the 2nd OT…That’s almost 70 mins….
The Goumas goal would have ben saved by a squirt goalie. Time for Millan to be benched!
LOL – did you even watch the game? We lost 3-2 so how could Karen Millan have played 70 minutes of scoreless hockey?
See my reply above, the original poster is correct…
Who was the defenseman who coughed up the puck to lose the game?
It was that idiot Noonan. He plays no defense at all. He’s the new Warso. He also lost the Beanpot for us by being out of position and made no effort to block the BC shot that won the game.
Privitera turned the puck over behind the net first, then Rosen tried to carry it out in front and Downing ripped it off his stick. Noonan was not on the ice at the time of the goal.
Millan was certainly not the problem last night, nor was he the reason that we are playing UNH to begin with. This was a BAD loss to a team that we shouldn’t even be playing. But, that’s what you get when you don’t put your BEST lineup on the ice for an end of the season game that means a spot up, or down, in the standings last Saturday. THAT falls on Parker.
Sad that UNH fans chanted ” No Means No” and we had no response.
UNG fans chanted a lot worse than that. That chants is probably the only one that can be posted with being censored for language.